Issue number two of
this superbly done comic comes at us with more flare than what
Fulci had intended in his original cult classic. Eibon Press's
flagship Fulci comic books are in full swing with plans on doing
House by the Cemetery, The Beyond and City of
the Living Dead aka The Gates of Hell. In this second
issue of Zombie we get pages from The Gates of Hell
comic which is the next in line for the Fulci Comics roster.
From the sneak peek pages The Gates of Hell might even
surpass the intense art and tweaked in depth story Zombie
has managed to do thus far.

By introducing in depth character development, the reader really
gets more of a sense of what each character in the comic is
thinking, from Dr. Menard to his wife Olga to Peter West
himself. In this issue the focus is put on Dr. Menard and his
hot naked and bush bearing wife Olga as they take terrifying
steps closer to their fates. In this case if you are familiar
with the Zombie movie, you know Menard's wife takes a
huge ass splinter to her retina -- a scene of memorable ocular
madness which is renowned in the movie, and one of the segments
which made the movie so infamous.

The scene in the movie is terrifying as we get an intense
close-up scene of Kartalos fighting desperately to free herself
as her hair is pulled, and head forced upon the sharp protruding
wood by a bloodthirsty zombie. The comic manages to make the
scene even better by making it a terrifying artistic explosion
of bright red gore and terror. In the movie when the splinter
initially goes into Kartalos eye, there is a lack of blood but
the comic makes sure the red stuff gushes in glorious amounts.
The other kicker of a scene involves the infamous zombie versus
shark segment, and the comic does it more than justice with the
ocean turning red as the zombie and the shark take equal gory
bites out of each other. The scene in the movie always suffered
from poor effects work but the comic's ability to capture and
authenticate it in crisp art with bright colors gives the
underwater battle its much respected due.

I believe issue number two surpasses issue number one with those
two scenes alone. That is a challenge within itself because the
first issue was very well done. By loading up the second issue
with the splinter in the eye sequence, and the zombie versus
shark battle they have filled this book with so much cool shit
that Fulci fans can't help but smile with the homage and justice
that is done within its pages. It's also cool how they add in
little bits that I notice, such as Dr. Menard referring to
himself as Dr. Butcher M.D. or on one page we see a bottle of
Old Crow, the executive publisher Shawn Lewis' booze of choice.

They also seem to focus on a voodoo priest so I'm interested in
seeing how this angle plays out because this is an element which
was never touched upon in the movie. The viewer was only ever
given hints of voodoo and an ominous force bringing the dead
back to life. Again, this issue comes with cool stickers,
bookmarks and extras. I opted for the cheaper unsigned edition
but I believe you can still buy copies of both, or at least the
unsigned second issue. They come in that very cool cardboard
sleeve, something which I can't stop raving about. It really
adds that extra touch if you have collected comics in the past.
The rugged look of the comic on the inside is super cool. It
makes it look worn and used, which is another creative touch.

At the end of the book we also get some writing from Stephen
Romano on how popular the Zombie books have become and
some storyboard's for issue two from Michael Broom. The
collectors market has always been a US market, so as the
Canadian dollar languishes in despair, the books are pricey for
us Canucks but if you've got the coin they are well worth your
time and money because you can tell the love and passion put
into them. They come highly recommended and now I will continue
to collect them all.